UK - Every other year, 164 countries meet at the World Trade Organisation to discuss the rules that govern global trade. This year, representing Britain, I made the case for free trade as a force for good to raise global living standards. As business secretary, I secured more investment into the British automotive industry in 2023 than in the previous seven years combined. But China has an unusually high number of loss-making firms that receive state subsidy. They are planning production capacity of 70 million electric vehicles by 2030, while global sales of electric vehicles are only estimated at 44 million for that year.

SWITZERLAND - The WEF gleefully posted the following snippet to the “My Carbon” page of its website where they make a pitch for so-called smart cities, which is just another term for 15-minute cities. The first of three “developments” that the WEF says must be in place before the world can evolve into its utopian vision of “smart and sustainable cities,” is compliance with restrictions on our freedom. It writes:

USA - Hurricane forecasters are bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. The Atlantic hurricane season was supposed to be epic. Instead, it's turned into a real dud. Huge storms wreaking havoc on coastlines from Aruba to Long Island were supposed to line up in the Eastern Atlantic in June and hit us one at a time until late September. The damage was going to be historic and the TV coverage was going to give climate change fanatics plenty of air time to vent that "this is just a foretaste" of what's to come. But something puzzling occurred on the way to hurricane Armageddon: not much has happened. The Atlantic Ocean has seen five named storms: two tropical storms, two hurricanes and one major hurricane this season. That hasn't stopped scientists from warning that things could always get worse.

UK - Almost two million children - one in five - are struggling with speech and language problems - a rise of more than a quarter since Covid lockdown measures were introduced. The increase - 200,000 each year since 2021 - is being blamed on the ongoing impact of lockdown measures which led to widespread mask wearing and reduced socialisation. Experts say the cost of living crisis is compounding the problem with children less likely to have new experiences needed to help them learn new words. The figures come as educational experts express fears for ‘lockdown babies’ at risk of social and emotional difficulties as they start school this month. She added: “If you are struggling to talk, it is hard to make friends. This affects your mental health and this can have a lasting impact on your academic success and employment prospects that can last for decades.”

UK - Much of my schooling involved learning things by heart. And that is where they still are, in my heart. Ask me what eight nines are and I can answer in a flash without thinking. Likewise, I know how many ounces there are in a pound and how many yards in a mile. And I can still recite quite a lot of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's great poem The Revenge: A Ballad Of The Fleet, to the dismay of anyone who has to listen, longing for me to stop. I have always been grateful. I still use my tables several times a day, which is more than I can say for most of the stuff I was taught at school.

IRAN - Iran has reportedly delivered more than 200 ballistic missiles to Russia, as military experts warn this development could be "game-changing" for the Ukraine war. Russia could win back momentum in the war in Ukraine, according to military experts, after reports suggest a huge missile delivery from Iran. Tehran has allegedly sent more than 200 ballistic missiles to Russia this week, sparking alarm in the US and Ukraine. Ukrainian military sources suggest that Iran's reported supply of missiles, thought to be Fath-360 missiles, could be a "game-changer" for the frozen frontline in the war-torn country.

EUROPE - European politics has seen a spectacular rise in the fortunes of far-right parties in recent years. Six EU countries now have parties in government widely described by experts as hard or far-right - these include Italy, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and the Netherlands. Marine Le Pen's National Rally had victory snatched from its grasp by tactical voting in July's parliamentary elections in France, allowing a left-wing coalition to claim the most seats but not a clear majority. Meanwhile, national elections this year in Austria and Germany could see far-right parties make even more political gains. Elections are also to be held in Sweden in 2026, a country in which the hard-right Swedish Democrats are the second-largest party in parliament and are supporting the centre-moderate executive.

GERMANY - The recent elections in East Germany reveal something far more profound than a shift in political allegiance – they signal the re-emergence of a deep-seated German spirit that refuses to bow to the decaying influence of Western liberalism. The success of the patriotic party AfD (Alternative for Germany) in the East is proof of the enduring divide between East and West Germany, a divide shaped by vastly different historical experiences and a clash of values.

USA - If you are determined to push a bear into a corner, you better know what you are doing. Right now, Ukraine is begging the Biden administration to allow it to use long-range missiles provided by the United States to strike targets deep inside of Russia. Since the Ukrainians have eventually gotten just about everything else that they have wanted from us, they will probably get approval for this at some point too. So how do you think the Russians would respond if missiles that are provided by the United States start falling in their major cities and killing innocent civilians? Do you think that the Russians may consider us to be responsible? Vladimir Putin has made it very clear that if the Russians believe there is an existential threat to “Russia’s statehood”, they will strike…

INDONESIA - Pope Francis has hit out at couples who choose pets over children, emphasising the importance of large families in a world facing declining birth rates. Speaking during a visit to Indonesia as part of a wider tour of Southeast Asia, the Pope praised families with three, four, or five children, calling them an example for other nations, before delivering a snide jibe at childless couples who opt to care for cats and dogs, warning: 'This cannot go well.' The Pope's comments are part of a wider theme in his papacy, where he has repeatedly urged couples to prioritise children over pets, viewing the trend of childlessness as a significant societal issue. Beyond the criticism of childless pet owners, Pope Francis also warned against using religion to stoke conflict in a speech delivered alongside a highly influential imam.

USA - How does it feel to live in one of the most crime-ridden nations on the entire planet? Our major urban areas are absolutely teeming with predators, and millions upon millions of law-abiding citizens are literally afraid to leave their homes at night as a result. Of course at this point it isn’t exactly safe to be strolling through the streets in the middle of the day either. On Saturday afternoon, a wide receiver that was a first round choice of the San Francisco 49ers during the most recent NFL draft was shot in the chest as a thief attempted to steal his Rolex watch… If it wasn’t an NFL player that had been shot, this story never would have made the news, because this sort of thing has become extremely common. At this stage, gang members far outnumber the police in many of our largest cities.

ISRAEL - The Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, has called on the Ukrainian government to repeal a law which exposes the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to a likely ban. Kiev has outlawed religious organizations that it suspects of having ties with Russia. The legislation, which Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky signed into law last month, is designed to shut down the UOC, the largest Christian denomination in the country. The UOC was previously targeted in a massive crackdown by the state, as officials told priests and the faithful that they should switch to the Kiev-supported rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).

RUSSIA - A rattled Vladimir Putin has admitted that Russia is ready for peace talks with Kyiv as Ukraine continues its blistering offensive in Kursk. The Russian despot said at the 2024 Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok today: 'Are we ready to negotiate with them? We have never refused to do so, but not on the basis of some ephemeral demands, but on the basis of those documents that were agreed and actually initialled in Istanbul,' referring to a failed peace deal from talks in the Turkish city early on in the war. Although the Kremlin says these conditions for peace talks with Ukraine do not currently exist, Putin named China, India and Brazil as potential mediators.

USA - It is incredibly sad to watch the US economy slowly but surely come apart at the seams all around us. For most of our history, the rest of the world marveled at our economic performance, and that is because we embraced economic values that led to great blessing. In recent decades, we have abandoned those values, but we were able to maintain a very high standard of living by going into unprecedented amounts of debt. Our leaders were able to keep the game going for longer than a lot of people thought, but now we have entered the final depressing chapters for the late, great US economy, and we can see evidence of this all around us. If you doubt this, just look at all of the businesses that are going bankrupt.

GERMANY - Germany’s army rushed an Iris-T air-defence system into service on its own soil for the first time Wednesday having delivered several of the sophisticated systems to war-torn Ukraine to take down Russian rockets, drones and missiles mid-flight. AFP reports Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the surface-to-air system was part of a long term build-up of German and European defences initiated in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin launching the Ukraine invasion in 2022. “Russia has been massively rearming for many years, especially in the field of rockets and cruise missiles,” Scholz said at the inauguration ceremony at a base in Todendorf near the northern city of Hamburg.